Apartment Trouble, is this legal?

[puttockc]

Hi all,

I've been having some trouble with the company that manages my apartment building.

My building is owned by Starlight investments and "Managed" by Sterling Karamar.
they took over in January 2014 after the building was sold.



Maybe skip to TL;DR

Sorry this is half a rambling rant
-----------------------------
They have been renovating in very shallowing and obviously cheep ways, new carpeting with no under-padding, new wallpaper, and painting all the doors (literally sprayed on, not sure if that's normal)

They have been doing shady things like notifying us Friday, after the office closes, That they were changing all locks Monday morning. I know at lease one person was locked out because they arrived home after the super went home, and had to venture to the Super's house to get the key.

This past weekend I came home from work and I could see my breath in the hallway. I have been living here for four-years and have never seen the temperature here be anything less than comfortable. I used a thermometer meant to measure the hallway temperature.

it was NEGATIVE 12!!! in the hallway. My apartment is heated with electric heaters, this adds up.

I have recently had the most expensive electric bill ever.

It took 5 separate residents calling the super to convince him to come out and check it.

I had to get onto the roof with him to shut off a huge A/C heating machine that wasn't producing heat and simply Forcing air from the roof into the hallways, under pressure)

I contacted the property management company and was told that the hall's have ever been heated and never will be.

Since shutting off the A/C machine and shutting the vents to outside the hallway sits at about +10C-12C, heated only by the heat leaking from the apartments.

This was only the most dramatic thing recently, but I have tiles falling off my walls in the bathroom they I have been submitting repair requests for since November. (I should have kept records)

The hot water has been weaker than ever, like the boiler temp was turned down or something like that and the apartment heaters are starting to no self regulate at either over or under-heat before shutting off.

is the company responsible for heating common areas?


TL;DR
Super/Management ignores repair requests
Common areas are not heated and management says they will not change that (-12 in the hallways at one point)

Can I hold them to heating the hallway?

 

[klr_guy]

My apartment is heated with electric heaters, this adds up.

Your apartment is only heated with electric baseboard heaters (that you have to pay electricity on?), or you've added additional space heaters? My understanding is landlords need to have the unit at 21c.

"497-2. Minimum temperature.
A landlord shall provide heat to a dwelling unit that is rented or leased and that is normally heated at the landlord's expense so that a minimum air temperature of 21 degrees Celsius is maintained in all areas of the dwelling unit from the 15th day of September in each year to the 1st day of June in the following year."

In terms of the hallway - not sure on that - you'd think it'd be counted as living space / common use area or something.

 

[mimico_polak]

What type of heating does the building have naturally? Rads?

i ask because it's very weird that you have electric heaters and pay hydro. Seems like a landlord at some point in time stopped heating the building, gave tenants baseboard heaters, and put the onus on them to heat their own units.

as for hallway...call the landlord and tenant board because this is ******** (and I'm a landlord!).

 

[kellen]

Move

 

[TwistedKestrel]

Heating is one thing landlords should know not to **** around with, as the Landlord and Tenant Board takes a dim view of it. If you have to heat your apartment yourself with space heaters, you have a problem that you need to take to the board. To be honest, it sounds like the landlord is scum to begin with. If you haven't started this already, I would start documenting everything, do all your communicating in writing, and keep copies of everything.

 

[corpse]

Sounds like this is only a taste of what will come, I also say move.

 

[CruisnGrrl]

sounds like you have a slumlord not a landlord. gtfo

 

[mimico_polak]

Sounds like this is only a taste of what will come, I also say move.

Before you move make sure you report the slumlord to the board. ******** like this give us all a bad name.

 

[puttockc]

Your apartment is only heated with electric baseboard heaters (that you have to pay electricity on?), or you've added additional space heaters? My understanding is landlords need to have the unit at 21c.

"497-2. Minimum temperature.
A landlord shall provide heat to a dwelling unit that is rented or leased and that is normally heated at the landlord's expense so that a minimum air temperature of 21 degrees Celsius is maintained in all areas of the dwelling unit from the 15th day of September in each year to the 1st day of June in the following year."

In terms of the hallway - not sure on that - you'd think it'd be counted as living space / common use area or something.

What type of heating does the building have naturally? Rads?

i ask because it's very weird that you have electric heaters and pay hydro. Seems like a landlord at some point in time stopped heating the building, gave tenants baseboard heaters, and put the onus on them to heat their own units.

as for hallway...call the landlord and tenant board because this is ******** (and I'm a landlord!).

Before you move make sure you report the slumlord to the board. ******** like this give us all a bad name.

In my apartment there are heater's built into the wall. the kind you get at a cheap motel. they are basically holes in the wall with an A/c+heat mechanism.

The hallways would be heated by a big machine on the roof that i have observed gas lines running to, as well as warnings on the machine to beware of the smell of gas. This would indicate that it heat the air via Natural gas?

I found this today:

"Maintenance of room temperature15. (1) Heat shall be provided and maintained so that the room temperature at 1.5 metres above floor level and one metre from exterior walls in all habitable space and in any area intended for normal use by tenants, including recreation rooms and laundry rooms but excluding locker rooms and garages, is at least 20 degrees Celsius. O. Reg. 517/06, s. 15 (1)."

 

[LiNK666]

Need heat? Start a fire. I'm sure a slum lord like that wouldn't invest in cameras.

 

[PLau]

Need heat? Start a fire. I'm sure a slum lord like that wouldn't invest in cameras.

 

[unL33T]

If heat was included he would have to maintain your living area at 21C. Since you pay your own heat it's your own problem. I don't think they legally have to heat the hallway. Get some weather stripping for the door to keep your heat in. If there are common areas like laundry or something you might have an argument but I'm not sure what the rules are for that.

You might be able to hold them liable for the extra costs if their HVAC unit malfunctioned causing the hallway to be much colder than it otherwise would have been which would make your heating costs go up as you lose heat to the hallway but good luck collecting on that without going to court.

 

[Artois]

Examples of common areas include:

1. lobbies,[SUP][3][/SUP] [SUP][8][/SUP]
2. corridors,[SUP][3][/SUP] [SUP][8][/SUP]
3. stairways,[SUP][3][/SUP] [SUP][1][/SUP]
4. parking lots, spots, ramps, or other such areas,[SUP][9][/SUP]
5. washing machines or laundry room,[SUP][9][/SUP] [SUP][10][/SUP]
6. the roof of an apartment building,[SUP][11][/SUP]
7. elevators,[SUP][3][/SUP]
8. washrooms in lobby area,[SUP][3][/SUP] [SUP][8][/SUP]
9. driveways, [SUP][1][/SUP] and
10. store rooms. [SUP][1][/SUP]

 

[Rob MacLennan]

In my apartment there are heater's built into the wall. the kind you get at a cheap motel. they are basically holes in the wall with an A/c+heat mechanism.

The hallways would be heated by a big machine on the roof that i have observed gas lines running to, as well as warnings on the machine to beware of the smell of gas. This would indicate that it heat the air via Natural gas?

I found this today:

"Maintenance of room temperature15. (1) Heat shall be provided and maintained so that the room temperature at 1.5 metres above floor level and one metre from exterior walls in all habitable space and in any area intended for normal use by tenants, including recreation rooms and laundry rooms but excluding locker rooms and garages, is at least 20 degrees Celsius. O. Reg. 517/06, s. 15 (1)."

Yup, from the Ontario regs:

http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/regs/english/elaws_regs_060517_e.htm#BK19

 

[-D-]

google that company
I think I saw a piece on the guy that owns that company
he was on the news years ago for one of his buildings with no heat during winter
they did a piece on him and showed all the buildings he owned and how he keeps CHANGING the names of his company
I think this is the newest name